"Broadcasters are fuming" at an FCC proposal that stations put all public disclosures -- including political ad rates -- "online instead of kept at station offices in paper form," writes Amy Schatz. Lobbyists for Fox NBC and Disney complained that with such disclosure,  "'competitors in the market and commercial advertisers may anonymously glean highly sensitive pricing data' that could lead to 'distortion in the market for commercial advertising,'" writes Schatz. Currently the FCC won't reveal "when the agency might cement the new rule."

2011 was not a good year for newspaper advertising, with total revenue down 7.3% -- almost $2 billion, and a percentage point more than the previous year's loss -- according to the Newspaper Association of America. Digital ad revenue grew 6.8% for the year, after a fourth quarter that was down from the very strong 14% gain in 2010, with the "NAA... aware that its traditional data gathering needs to be revised to capture digital circulation revenue as newspapers phase in digital pay wall systems," writes Rick Edmonds.

Billboard magazine's chart of Hot 100 songs -- known as the "Bible" of the music industry -- is finally going digital. "it will now include data from streaming-music sites and subscription-music services such as Spotify AB, Rhapsody International Inc. and Rdio Inc. to its calculations of a song's popularity," writes Ethan Smith.

Anonymous sources say that Italian publishing company Mondadori will launch the Italian version of InStyle magazine this year, according to Alessandra Turra. However, she tried and failed to get confirmation from Time Inc. which owns the publication (currently in 15 editons worldwide, including in Spain, Australia, and Indonesia).

Time.com's new sports blog, Keeping Score -- rolled out just in time for March Madness -- will feature all of the mag's coverage of sports around the world and "their larger cultural, economic and political impact," writes Emma Bazilian. The launch follows that of other verticals on the site covering everything "from technology to health to politics," according to Bazilian.

The History Channel is planning its first scripted  series, "The Vikings" -- all about those medieval Norsemen -- set to debut next year. "It is a bold play for the channel, which has become a top-rated ad-supported cable network on the strength of its male-targeted unscripted slate including 'Pawn Stars'and 'Ice Road Truckers,'" writes Marisa Guthrie.

Media coverage of the March 25 premiere of "Mad Men" has begun to heat up. Since  showrunner Matt Weiner is famously "paranoid" about anyone releasing any details about future programs (as Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall notes), writers have had to rely on speculation of what's coming -- or  analysis of past episodes. The latter is the strategy most of the cast and Weiner take at the recent Paleyfest Mad Men panel, Sepinwall reports. He includes some good quips by stars like John Slattery (we love his take on the infamous blackface scene) -- and a look at how "Kiernan Shipka, …

Hearst is launching Cosmo Latina in May with the first of two issues this year. The English language pub, targeting "the millions of young, bilingual and bicultural Latino Americans" will have half its ads coming from  beauty marketers, writes Emma Bazilian. The pub will face some distinct challenges. "Cosmo Latina, by covering topics like sex and dealing with conservative parents, could stir controversy by going up against traditional culture," writes Bazilian. "And an English-language product needs to be compelling enough to pull in acculturated Hispanics who already consume mainstream media, not to mention the advertisers who are already reaching them …

Should magazine publishers unbundle content for their tablet editions, selling users "digital magazine stories, complete with gorgeous photos and glossy-style advertising, a la carte," exactly like the song versus album model on iTunes? That's what Anthony Wing Kosner suggests in this post to counter the increasingly large sizes of  digital magazines, which "have become a pain point for users." Interesting post, marred by a jarring note of self-promotion on this Forbes.com site. Kosner writes, "For magazine publishers, this means learning the lessons that successful online publications, Forbes.com being a leader among them, have baked into their business models." Ugh.

Two days before the Barry Diller-backed service Aereo was set to roll out its online television service in metropolitan New York, the company countersued  major broadcasters including ABC, CBS and NBCU, whose original suit was filed "to stop the retransmission of their programming," writes Jonathan Stempel. In its countersuit, Aereo noted that its product allowed viewers to "do no more than what they are entitled to do," according to Stempel.